Appreciation for GOES West

GOES Satellite

 

The potential for a 1 in 10 year wind storm has gotten plenty of attention. Perhaps Facebook is enhancing the spread of concern. Hopefully folks will be clever about staying away from trees. The approaching event should cause some appreciation of GOES West. I for one appreciated the weather predictions and shifted my field adventures accordingly.

Dan's Wild Science points out that hurricane winds may be expected. He also provided this image from the GOES West Satellite of the approaching storm.

The spiral from yesterday's storm can be readily made out, but the bigger approaching storm event has not formed yet. The combination of GOES West (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOES_15)imagery and data and weather models has allowed for providing high wind warnings associated with this event days ahead of the intense low pressure even taking shape. Compared to the Columbus Day Storm in the 1962, this storm will not be unexpected.

The big deal of this storm is that it will bring very strong winds to the more interior sections of western Washington. The fact that it is a ten year or so wind storm suggests that a lot of 10 years worth of growth of tree branches, limbs and tops will all get tested. The positive aspect is that the ground is not yet saturated, so toppling will not be as great a risk as a January wind storm.